To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the level of health visitors in England on children's health.

Health visiting is an essential part of broader early years family support. The number of health visitors employed by National Health Service organisations reported through Electronic Staff Records shows reduction, but this is not a complete picture of the workforce as this goes not include social enterprises, private sector organisations or local authorities. It is the responsibility of local authorities to determine how the programme is provided to their communities based upon local needs.

Data on mandated health visitor reviews shows national coverage remains above those achieved in 2015. However, there is variation at a local level. Data is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/health-visitor-service-delivery-metrics-2018-to-2019

Progress against health and wellbeing outcomes for the zero to five years population, and inequalities in these outcomes, is published in Early Years Profiles at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/child-health-profiles/data#page/1/gid/1938133223/pat/6/par/E12000001/ati/102/are/E06000005